DESTINY OF THE REPUBLIC: A TAKE OF MADNESS, MEDICINE AND THE MURDER OF A PRESIDENT BY CANDICE MILLARD

*Just found this somewhere in my drafts and did this review a while ago. Decided to get it up now🙂

Summary

“The extraordinary New York Times-bestselling account of James Garfield’s rise from poverty to the American presidency, and the dramatic history of his assassination and legacy, from bestselling author of The River of Doubt, Candice Millard.

For a man forced into the presidency, the legacy of James Garfield extended far beyond his lifetime, and Destiny of the Republic revisits his meteoric rise within the military and government with meticulous research and intimate focus. Garfield was a passionate advocate of freed slaves, a reformer at odds with Republican power brokers and machine politics, a devoted father, and a spellbinding speech-giver. Four months after taking office he was shot twice by an unhinged office-seeker, Charles Guiteau, and a nation already recently fractured by war shattered, leaving the wounded president at the center of a bitter, behind-the-scenes struggle for power. Examining the medical reform spurred by Garfield’s unsanitary medical treatment, and reflecting on the surprising political reform brought on by his former political enemy Senator Roscoe Conkling, Destiny of the Republic passionately brings President Garfield’s unknown-but-widely-felt legacy into focus.”

-From Amazon.com

Review

I would normally never have chosen this book as I don’t usually read nonfiction but this was a very interesting read. It is all facts but you really do learn a lot about Garfield. I personally never knew that we had a president named Garfield. I also never knew that Alexander Bell had over 600 lawsuits due to his telephone invention. There is not terribly much to say about this book due to the fact that it is a nonfiction but it does have nice imagery. I really enjoyed reading this book. I originally thought that I was going to hate it, but it really read like a novel and was quite enjoyable.

There is a lot of politics so it does get a little confusing at a few points but you can usually figure out where it is going. There is also some gruesome imagery as they talk about what happened to Garfield once he was shot. It was described in great detail what was seen so that is something to watch out for.

I definitely recommend reading this book as it was really interesting. I recommend it for people over the age of 14/15 due to the fact it is for mature readers and will be hard to follow for the younger readers. It is an adult book.